


Seeing-Eye Dogs

by A_Lesbian_With_Pink_Hair



Series: What Big Eyes You Have [5]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Canon-Typical Violence, Gen, M/M, Mates, blind!Stiles
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-03
Updated: 2012-12-03
Packaged: 2017-11-20 05:39:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,917
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/581889
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/A_Lesbian_With_Pink_Hair/pseuds/A_Lesbian_With_Pink_Hair
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Stiles has never needed a service dog to get around, and he certainly does not need a whole pack of them. Alternatively, sometimes Derek could use a seeing-eye dog.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Seeing-Eye Dogs

**Author's Note:**

> Hey y'all! Sorry for the delay. It's the end of the semester and things are cray-cray at the moment, but I managed to write this one for you guys. Not a lot of shmoop this time, but I had a lot of fun writing it.
> 
> I hope you enjoy Stiles being a badass even when he's blind.

After Derek confesses that he and Stiles are werewolf-soulmates, the betas fall into line accordingly. Post-kanima, they had been much friendlier, but once Stiles was their alpha’s _mate_ , well, then they started doing that gross way-too-nice thing that all Stiles’ teachers do. 

Stiles hates it.

His whole life has been mostly other people tiptoeing around him, and he certainly doesn’t need it. Especially not from Derek and the rest of the pack; up until very recently, all of them—minus Jackson and Lydia—have known what it’s like to go through life being looked down on for being different. And suddenly now that they’ve had the supernatural makeover, they’re looking down on him.

He expresses this irritation to Scott, but neither of them can think of a good solution.

Monsters start showing up in Beacon Hills, because naturally life just can’t go back to any semblance of normal anymore. First there are fairies in the forest, and they’re mean and territorial, and everyone almost dies because the betas decide that Stiles is a priority over everyone else and it is at this point that Stiles realizes that he had a problem on his hands—being the alpha’s mate and being disabled means that the betas see him as a weakness in the pack that has to be covered. When Derek doesn’t physically bar him from attending the showdown, that is. There was a chupacabra in the forest once and Derek actually locked him in the Camaro for that one.

During school hours there’s usually at least one of them by his side, which is totally unnecessary because Stiles has navigated his way to and from classes for years and he doesn’t need help. If he needed help, he’d have gotten a seeing-eye dog years ago. And now somehow he’s ended up with a whole pack of them.

One day Stiles decides he’s going to say something about it.

The day after that, Isaac goes missing.

\--

“So, let me see if I’ve got this straight,” Lydia says, arms crossed. “You thought there was something in the east part of the woods so you sent Boyd and Isaac to check. Then Boyd came back but Isaac didn’t and when you went to find him this morning, you found…”

Derek has the grace to look embarrassed. “Um. He seems to have been turned to stone.”

Stiles looks incredulously in Derek’s general direction, which Scott thinks is hilarious, because Stiles is completely impervious to Derek’s impressive bitch faces and his own are so delightfully bitchy.

The four of them are in Deaton’s office, naturally, because there’s not exactly a lot of options when your friend gets turned into a rock.

Derek grunts and throws his arm up uselessly. “Look, did you two find anything or not?”

Stiles grins. “See, this is why your wolfy brain picked me to be your mate. Because I’m actually competent. I’m like 90% sure that it’s a sort of gorgon.”

“What’s a gorgon?” asks Scott.

“Have you ever heard the story of Medusa, Scott?” Deaton asks, walking back in with his fancy wooden witchcraft box.

“The lady with snake hair that’s so ugly that looking at her makes you t… ohhhhh.”

“Medusa was a gorgon. Obviously it’s not actually Medusa out there in the woods. But the gorgon was likely drawn here because of Derek and his alpha power. As his pack gets bigger, it also gets more obvious to more… magic-oriented beings,” the vet explains, mixing powders and plant roots together as he speaks.

Lydia adds, “The only way to kill it is to cut off its head. And you can’t look at it. Obviously.”

“How the hell am I supposed to cut its head off if I can’t see it?” Derek snarls.

Stiles directs another flawless bitch face at Derek. “Wow, I don’t know, you could probably close your eyes and then _cut its freaking head off!”_

“But wait,” Scott says, “how are we supposed to even know where its head is?”

Lydia makes a rude snorting noise and Stiles goes through a series of irritated, flaily expressions before he finally says, “You guys are werewolves. Neither of you can figure out how to kill something with your eyes closed? Really?”

Scott and Derek exchange guilty looks. Stiles, of course, is right; with their heightened senses of smell and hearing, fighting blind shouldn’t be so much of a problem.

Deaton taps a glass vial lightly on the metal table. “That’s settled, then. Once you’ve beheaded the gorgon, I can free Isaac from the stone.”  
“Wait, I think I remembered something from the Medusa story,” Scott says. “Didn’t the guy who killed Medusa use a mirror or something?”

“Well, that story is a myth based off of a real monster. In reality, the reason people turn to stone when they see it is because seeing its face in any capacity activates its natural defense, which is a spell that turns people to stone,” Deaton explains. “A mirror won’t protect you. If you look at it, that’s the end of the fight.”

\--  
They figure out that the gorgon has holed itself away in a cave somewhere east of the Hale house, near where they’d found Isaac. 

“You’re not coming,” Derek growls at Stiles.

“Yes, I am, because every time I don’t, things go horribly awry. Is that what you want, for things to go horribly awry?” Stiles counters.

“Things go horribly awry because we’re always trying to protect you when you’re in the way!” Erica exclaims, hands on her hips.

“False. You always seem to think I’m gonna break at the drop of a hat but I assure you I am self-sufficient enough to not die. You keep doing this, like I suddenly need your help but you don’t need mine.”

Jackson rolls his eyes. “It’s because you’re a human and we’re going to kill a monster, you frickin’ idiot.”

Derek smacks Jackson on the back of the head, making Peter laugh quietly. Stiles crosses his arms. 

“Is it because I’m useless and blind? Because if it is, let’s be honest, I’ve saved all of your furry little asses on multiple occasions.”

The werewolves all exchange glances and Lydia shakes her head and sighs.

Stiles isn’t done though; he’s angry, and he’s had enough of the babying. “Monsters are going to keep showing up around here, okay? And as long as I’m part of this pack, those monsters are my business too. I’m not your part time research assistant, okay? I _don’t_ need a pack of _seeing-eye dogs!_ ”

Scott moves forward to put a hand on Stiles’ shoulder, but the other boy shrugs him off and grabs his backpack.

“I’m going home. Someone text me when it’s dead. And I don’t want to hear from a single one of you until that happens.”

The door slams shut behind him.

\--  
Things go horribly awry.

The gorgon is waiting for them, ambushes them from among the trees, flashes grotesque and horrifying very briefly across their fields of vision before everything goes cold.

First Jackson, then Scott and Boyd, then Erica, and finally even Peter has to open his eyes, unable to get his bearings on scent and sound alone. Lydia manages to send a text to Stiles before cold, creepy fingers pull her head back and force her eyes open.

\--

Derek is dimly aware of his surroundings. He can’t see anything and his hearing is fuzzy, but he has a sort of awareness of what’s going on around him.

He knows he can’t move but his entire being can feel that Stiles is nearby, and he knows the monster isn’t far and he want to tell Stiles to run, to get away, but he can’t speak and he can’t move and he’s absolutely helpless and it’s awful.

He’s failed.

\--

Stiles stalks into the clearing, white walking stick in one hand, short-sword from Peter’s creepy collection in the other. He stops and he stands very still and he listens very carefully.

He’s no werewolf. He cannot pinpoint the gorgon until it’s standing directly in front of him. Fortunately, this one comes right up to him, curious that his eyes are open but the spell hasn't worked. The thing peers at him and then snarls, enraged.

“Thisssss one doesss not ssssee,” it hisses furiously.

“Nope, not a day in my whole life,” Stiles agrees. 

“But,” the monster says, “you can ssssstill sssssuffer. You can ssssstill be ripped apart!”

Stiles is a very clever boy. He figures that the monster is humanoid and he’s good at pinpointing the source of noise. So he’s pretty sure he knows where its mouth is and therefore where its neck should be.

He drops the stick, grips the sword in both hands, and says, “Well, nobody’s perfect.”

He swings once, beheading the monster. It shrieks an awful, hideous noise, and Stiles falls back as the gorgon bursts into a greyish dust that blows away in the wind that’s blowing between the trees.

\--

When the wolves come to, Stiles is sitting in a chair in Deaton’s office, with the walking stick and the sword leaned against the wall. Derek ambles in, eyes cast down guiltily.  


“So, Deaton told me what happened.”

Stiles smiles and somehow manages to convey, ‘you’re an idiot and your plans are bad and you should feel bad’ with just that expression of his. “Yeah. Saved the day again. You were one funny-looking statue, dude. You were like, partially wolfed out and your face was doing this awesome scrunchy thing…”

“Well, good to know you can’t keep your hands off me even if I’m a rock,” Derek says. Stiles laughs. “Stiles, I… I’m. Sorry. For treating you like that. It’s just. You’re my mate. It’s my job to keep you safe, and—“

“Well you’re my mate, too,” Stiles says airily, standing up and moving closer. “And that means it’s my job to protect you and the pack too. Okay?”

Derek cups Stiles’ face and leans in to kiss him.

“Okay.”

“No more trying to leave me at home?”

“No. I’ve learned my lesson. Leaving you at home tends to…”

“Lead to things going horribly awry?” Stiles supplies.

“Yes. It’s much safer for everyone for you to stay close.”

The corners of Derek’s mouth turn up in the slightest smile as Stiles brushes his fingers against Derek’s to see it. He answers it with a smile of his own.

Stiles says, “Good.”

\--

After that, the betas stop trying to escort Stiles from class to class, and they stop treating him in that fake-nice way. Erica insults his clothing choices, Boyd and Isaac joke around with him, and Jackson… well, Jackson was never anything but a douchebag to him to start with, so that’s still the same. Even Lydia has stopped being quite so fake when she talks to him, which is great, because Stiles is really glad to be have another human in the pack to talk to about all this. (Allison will, inevitably, be back, but she’s still dealing with stuff. But Scott doesn’t seem at all worried about it, so Stiles lets it be.)

Stiles has spent his whole life being treated differently, and he’s always hated it, but he’s starting to think that maybe he’s found friends that appreciate everything that he can do. And Derek, who’s going to be with him pretty much indefinitely. Derek is learning.

Derek can’t see everything that Stiles is sometimes, but Stiles figures that’s okay, he doesn’t mind being Derek’s seeing-eye dog on those occasions.


End file.
